NSF Format
Festalon is a good NSF player. Other NSF players
- Mod.Acker by (?), covered by Mankeli, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- AIR - Kirameki by Magome Togoshi, covered by "1" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- AIR - Mikoto by Magome Togoshi, covered by "1" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- AIR - Wind by Magome Togoshi, covered by "1" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Airborn by (?), covered by Mankeli, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Alloy Run Mix by Jeroen Tel, covered by Phlumb-Dumb, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Ass-Raping Pirates on the High Seas by Andrew Coppess, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Axel F by Harold Faltermeyer, covered by nullsleep, code by Izumi.
- Beatmania IIDX 8th style - Xenon by Mr. T, covered by "1" of DTM-2CH's MCK development forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Beyond the Ice Palace by David Whittaker, covered by Joey Parsell (Memblers), code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Big Trouble in Baghdad! by Forrest Harding, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Brain Slapper on the Town by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Bull2: Hindsight is 20/20 by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Career-to-date by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Colorblind by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Covers vol. 1 by Damian Yerrick, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Crazy Caroms by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies by Tchaikovsky, covered by Doppelganger, code by Doppelganger.
- Digital Devil Story - Hellfire by Tsukasa Masuko, covered by ROPHON, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Doomsday by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Downtown (Flashing Pink-Screen Mix) by Manfred Linzner, covered by Chibi-Tech, code by Bananmos. NED included.
- Ducks by graa, code by Bananmos.
- EUPHORY - Town BGM by Manabu Saito, covered by "344" of DTM-2CH's MCK development forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Evolution by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Fix it With Sticky Tape by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Friends Bring You Up by nullsleep, code by Izumi.
- Fungus by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Galaxy Tonite by nullsleep, code by Bananmos.
- Gianna Sisters Remix by Chris Hlsbeck, covered by Phlumb-Dumb, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Goldrunner by Rob Hubbard, covered by Lasse Öörni (Cadaver), code by Lasse Öörni.
- Graabalogna by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Gradius Ned-Mix by (?), covered by Joey Parsell (Memblers), code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Guaranteed by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Harbor Day by graa, code by Bananmos.
- I Love U! by The Scanty, covered by Chibi-Tech, code by Bananmos.
- JareRap by Mankeli/Deep Presence, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Land of Confusion by Phill Collins, covered by Angelo, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Makaitoushi SaGa 1 & 2 by Kenji Ito, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH BBS's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Megaman: The Wiley Wars by (?), covered by Tsu Ryu, code by Izumi.
- Megaman: The Wiley Wars - stage select by (?), covered by Tsu Ryu.
- My Island Dream by nullsleep, code by Izumi.
- My Nose Hairs are Magical by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Nice Cement Mixer by graa, code by Bananmos.
- N. Tune 001 by "224" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- N. Tune 002 by "224" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- N. Tune 003 by "224" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- No Quarter by Led Zeppelin, covered by Angelo, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Nuclear Power medly by Mankeli, code by Bananmos.
- Occupied by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Paivantasaaja by Tero Laihanen (Floppi), covered by Chibi-Tech, code by Bananmos. NED included.
- Pancake Panic by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Phobos Lab by (?), covered by Mankeli, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Po-Barabanu (DanceDanceDendy Mix) by Andrey Trjasuna, covered by Chibi-Tech, code by Bananmos.
- P.S.Groove by ROPHON, code by Izumi. MIDI & MML source included.
- Psychic Detective Series - Aya by Yasuhito Saito, covered by ROPHON, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Rehavery Music 2000/01/21 by ROPHON, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Romancing SaGa 2 - Battle BGM by Kenji Ito, covered by "1" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Rophon's music 2001-09-29 by ROPHON, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Rophon's music 2001-11-17 by ROPHON, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Rophon's original music 2002/03/29 by ROPHON, code by Izumi.
- Rophon's original music 2002/04/04 by ROPHON, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Rophon's original music 2002/06/11 version by ROPHON, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Rophon's music 2002/06/13 - test of DPCM by ROPHON, code by Izumi. MML files included.
- ROPHON'S THEME'97 NSF Remix (Demo version) by ROPHON, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- RTC by Joey Parsell (Memblers), code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Screw the Glob-Tops! by Mankeli, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Slot Machine by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Solar Wars by Joey Parsell (Memblers), code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Sorcerian by (?), covered by Sio, code by Izumi.
- Soultaker by Jam Project, covered by Requ, code by Izumi. MML source included. (3 NSF's)
- Streetlight Symphony by nullsleep, code by Izumi.
- Super Mario Bros. Doki'Mix by Koji Kondo, covered by Phlumb-Dumb, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Super Mario Land NES-Mix by (?), covered by Phlumb-Dumb, code by Michel Iwaniec (Bananmos).
- Taxidermy by graa, code by Bananmos.
- Theme of Snatcher original by (?), covered by Sio, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Tekkno by Mankeli, code by Bananmos.
- Totally Screwed by Mankeli, code by Bananmos.
- Trail of Rupees by nullsleep, code by Bananmos.
- Virtual Idol Nakahara Komugi - Medicine of Love by Momoi, covered by Loda. MML source included.
- Xanadu Scenario II - Kelpsydre by (?), covered by Sio, code by Izumi.
- Xexex - Breeze (Stage 1) by Konami Kukeiha Club, covered by Wiz., code by Izumi. MML source included.
NSF Format with Namco 106 Expansion
- Dragon Quest 4 - Battle BGM by Kouichi Sugiyama, covered by "1" of DTM-2CH's MCK development forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Final Fantasy V - Map Field BGM #2 by Nobuo Uematsu, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Gradius - Stage 1 by Miki-Chang, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Gradius PC Engine - Stage 5 by (?), covered by "18" of DTM-2CH BBS's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Gradius - Stage 6 by Miki-Chang, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- The Legend of Heroes 2 - Depths of the earth by Falcom Sound Team JDK, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK development forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Makaitoushi SaGa 1 & 2 by Kenji Ito, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH BBS's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Mappy - Main BGM by Nobuyuki Ohnogi, covered by "50" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Mappy - Bonus Stage BGM by Nobuyuki Ohnogi, covered by "50" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Mappy - High Score BGM by Nobuyuki Ohnogi, covered by "50" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Nemesis 2 - Boss by Konami Kukeiha Club, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Nemesis 2 - Stage 1 by Konami Kukeiha Club, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Nemesis 2 - Stage 6 by Konami Kukeiha Club, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Nemesis 2 - Extra Stage by Konami Kukeiha Club, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Rockman 2 - Stage Start by Manami, Ogeretsu, Ietel, and Yuukichan's Papa, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Romancing SaGa 1 - Battle BGM #1 by Kenji Ito, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Romancing SaGa 1 - Horrible Shadow by Kenji Ito, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Romancing SaGa 2 - Dungeon 1 by Kenji Ito, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Romancing SaGa 3 - Battle BGM by Kenji Ito, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- ROPHON'S THEME (Namco 106 version) by ROPHON, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Tower of Druaga Arcade Soundtrack by Junko Ozawa, covered by "636" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi.
- Untitled MCK Test NSF by "1" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- View Point - stage 1 "Not all there" by Megumi, covered by "414" of DTM-2CH's MCK development forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
- Ys II Eternal - Palace of Salmon by Falcom Sound Team JDK, covered by "18" of DTM-2CH's MCK forum thread, code by Izumi. MML source included.
NSF Format with Famicom Disk System Expansion
Tracked Format
Use the tracker the song was composed in for best playback quality.
- Arabian Dreams .XM format, by Siudym.
- Big Trouble in Baghdad! .IT format, by 4S10/GENERIC.
- The Clockwork Airship .IT format, by 4S10/GENERIC.
- Complex Intro .XM format, by Walkman, covered by Chibi-Tech.
- DNA Clonin' .XM format, by Laxity, covered by Chibi-Tech.
- Enemy Zone .XM format, by Siudym.
- fx .IT format, chiptune disk by Jake Kaufman (virt).
- fx 2.0 .IT format, NES chiptune disk by Jake Kaufman (virt).
- NES Age .XM format, by Drax & Metal, covered by Chibi-Tech.
- Pandora's Grey-Box .XM format, by Scavenger/Synergy, covered by Chibi-Tech.
- Resident Koopa .IT format, by Lysander Lapine.
- Shortz .XM format, by Siudym.
- Super Bull Fighting .IT format, by Lysander Lapine.
- Super Turrican Level-1 Boss .XM format, by Chris Huelsbeck, covered by Chibi-Tech.
- Turrican III Level-1 Mix .XM format, by Chris Huelsbeck, covered by Chibi-Tech.
- TV Buddy Kid .IT format, by 4S10/GENERIC.
- Ultraspace Megablasteroid .IT format, by 4S10/GENERIC.
NES-Inspired
Music influenced by, but not limited to, NES sounds.
- NESx2 10 Chn. XM format, by Memblers.
Want to submit a song to this site? Cool! Send it to me in NSF format (with NED or MML if you want).
Be sure to fill out those info fields:
- Title - the name of the song, or soundtrack if several songs
- Author - your name, or whoever made it
- Copyright - year and copyright owner
- sound driver used, so the programmer can be credited here
- If it's a cover song, try to fit the original author's name in there somewhere!
The Sounds of the 2A03
You might be wondering, "What exactly is a 2A03 anyways?".
It is a customized 6502 CPU with sound synthesis built-in, and was first
heard by the Japanese public in 1983 with the release of Nintendo's
"Family Computer", or Famicom. It spread to America in 1985, and eventually
to Europe and the rest of the world. It has a unique sound; you'll never
hear anything exactly like it coming from any other presently-existing
synthesizer, other than maybe the NES-on-a-chip that's used in the Tri-Star
and various other NES-clone systems.
Here is a basic list of the abilities and limitations of the 2A03 sound synthesizer:
- 5 sound channels, 2 pulse (square), 1 triangle, 1 white noise, 1 digital.
- Pulse channels have 4 duty cycle settings: 87.5%, 75%, 50%, and 25%. If you know how a pulse wave works, you will notice that the difference between 25% and 75% is indistinguishable to the human ear.
- Pulse and triangle channels have an 11-bit frequency control, and is capable of producing tones ranging from approximately A-1 to B-8. The triangle channel is one octave lower.
- Pulse and noise channels have 16 volume levels.
- Triangle and digital channels have no volume control.
- The triangle waveform is synthesized by modulating 16 volume steps, hence the lack of volume control and subtle metallic resonance-type sound noticable at low frequencies.
- Noise channel has 4-bit frequency control, and is capable of producing 16 frequencies.
- Noise channel has a special 'looped noise' setting that allows it to produce a metallic sound.
- Digital channel can use a DMA method to play a sample, the sample depth is only 1-bit but it retains good quality by using a technique called "delta modulation", in which only the changes in the waveform are recorded.
- Digital channel is capable of playing 7-bit samples through a method similar to a digital-to-analogue-converter, or DAC.
- Digital channel's DMA method allows access to only 16k of sample data, but by using external bankswitching hardware you can overcome this limitation.
- Pulse channels have a built-in frequency-sweep function, often used for sound effects.
- Pulse channels have a built-in primitive volume envelope function.
- All sound channels except digital have built-in time-length control.
- See Brad Taylor's documentation for further details..
Musicians may have stopped writing music commercially with the 2A03 since
Nintendo discontinued the NES around 1993, but with recent developments in
the reverse engineering of the NES and emulation as a result, anyone can
learn how to work their will unto the NES. A generation that grew up playing
games on the NES may now want to try to express themselves through the NES.
Music Tools
- Nerdtracker 2 v2.1 final beta, by Bananmos. See the NT2 website for related tools and music.
- MCK by Izumi. A sound driver using MML format.
- MCKC: MCK > MML Converter by Manbow-J, translated by virt. This document shows you how to use MML to create NES music.
- DPCM HowTo by nullsleep. How to use DPCM samples with MCK.
- NSF2MIDI (english) by GIGO. Translated by Tatt and Yura.
- WAV2NES by David de Regt. Converts a .wav file to an .NES rom, but uses an obscure mapper unfortunately.
- dmc converter (Japanese) v.05 by Norix.
- sample converters by Bananmos. Includes 8bit-to-1bit and 1bit-to-8bit programs.
- sample converter by Damian Yerrick. Converts 8-bit samples to NES's 1-bit format, also scales the volume and oversamples the sound.
Links
- NES Music NES music in module format. No MIDI!
- SUGIMO's homepage In Japanese. Nihon Falcom VGMs, and other stuff.
- VGMIX A videogame music remix site, with an excellent interface for musicans to add their own works.
- VORC A Japanese/English chip and game music news site.
- Zophar's Domain NSF page The most complete NSF archive around.
- Emulation Soundfile Archive Factory Original NES music, and stuff in many other formats.
- Chibi-Tech's page Tracked chip music, including NES-style stuff.
- Manbow-J's Branch($80) Office Another NSF page.
- Dropoff 7 Original music, plus NES music remixes and a few real NES tunes recorded with analogue effects.
- The Minibosses A band that covered some NES songs, their MP3s available for download here.
- OverClocked ReMix A site with remixes (mostly MP3 format) of music from games of many systems.
- NES Remixes Some rather nice NES-related MP3s. Don't miss the SMB theme performed by Mr. Bungle.
- The Best Game Music! Check it out whether you read Japanese or not, it has music and original content. Also the home of the MCK sound driver.
- NES World Jukebox Lots of game music.
- NES Audio Zone An archive of NESA files, an NES music format recorded with A/NES. There are no known NESA players for the PC.
- Video Game Music Mod Ring An index of sites with game music .XMs, and .S3Ms, etc.
- The Unofficial Enix Music Page More stuff that I haven't gotten around to adding here.
- Nintendo Tabs Guitar tablatures from NES, SNES, and N64 games.
- Video Game Jam Guitar and bass tablature for game music.
- Chiptune.com Chip music in various formats.
Back to main page.